As San Francisco gears up for its Gay Pride celebrations, Streetsblog thought it would be a good time to check in on one of the city’s most stirring–and hard to reach–memorials to the struggles faced by the community.

Pink Triangle Park, seen in the photos, is located above the Castro Muni Station, nestled between Market Street and 17th Street. It is a memorial to homosexuals murdered during the Holocaust.

The Pink Triangle Park is the first permanent, free-standing memorial in the United States dedicated to the persecuted and murdered homosexuals during the Nazi era. The park and monument was conceived and built by the Eureka Valley Neighborhood Association (EVNA), a neighborhood association for the Castro, Upper Market and Duboce Triangle areas.

Unfortunately, many long-time residents of San Francisco don’t know it’s there. That’s because it’s caught between Market and 17th’s lanes of fast-moving traffic. Access from the station is extremely precarious. One has to navigate up a narrow concrete median thumbnail. It’s pretty much impossible for seniors or those with disabilities to get to it from Castro and Market without risking getting run over.

A diagram of where SFMTA will stage materials near Pink Triangle Park. Image: SFMTA

During that period, SFMTA will have to put in some road modifications so traffic and buses can get around the construction materials. This includes removing the concrete thumbnail seen in the upper right of the diagram.

When the Twin Peaks tunnel repairs are finished, those modifications will be removed, and everything will return to normal (and unsafe). But according to a source inside SFMTA, there’s a push to try and use this opportunity to permanently modify the intersection, calm traffic, and improve pedestrian access to the park.

How far along are the designs? Well, the official referred to it as a “napkin sketch at this point,” but confirmed that SFMTA is talking with Public Works about doing an outreach survey as a first step. One specific idea could be to move the entrance to 17th Street to the west, separating it from the already complex intersection of Castro and Market. This will require traffic to make a hard right around the park, which will force cars to slow down, and make the park more safely accessible for pedestrians coming from Castro and Market.

Heavy equipment getting dropped by Triangle Park to start extending the bus boarding area in anticipation of SFMTA’s Twin Peaks tunnel closure and staging.Another look at the park, with a view of 17th, the thumbnail, and the fast traffic that shoots past it, making it hard to access from Castro and Market

Streetsblog will get more information out there as it becomes available, so readers can chime in. In the meantime, advocate Matt Brezina is starting an online petition to show interest for making the park more accessible.

You can also volunteer to help clean and spruce up the park tomorrow, Saturday, June 16, 9-12 p.m., Pink Triangle Park + Memorial, 4107 17th St.

More pics of the park below:

A ‘goat trail’ where people made their own way to the park–it seems a bit safer to cross from 17th here than work your way up the thumbnail.Access from the west is safer from traffic, but not exactly inviting.Another look at the parkA pink triangle, reminiscent of the pink triangle badges worn by inmates of Nazi campsAnother view of the park’s paver stones and greenery

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Photo of Showplace Triangle Plaza, formerly a street and parking lot. Photo: Captin Nod San Francisco’s two newest Pavement to Parks plazas got an official launch ceremony this afternoon after several months of public use, along with a promise from the Mayor to build twelve more public spaces like them before the end of the […]

This Wednesday, the Planning Department will hold simultaneous community meetings about making a more pedestrian-friendly Castro Street and the creation of a new Pavement to Parks plaza at the Persia Triangle in the Excelsior District. Those interested in more bike-friendly streets in the Glen Park, Noe Valley, and Castro neighborhoods can also join the SF Bicycle Coalition […]

The Central Freeway sections damaged by the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989 have been replaced by such a distinctive Octavia Boulevard, for many San Franciscans the double-decked behemoth that used to dominate the neighborhood has become a distant memory. Most of the traffic the freeway carried, however, has not disappeared and now city planners are […]

When it comes to reclaiming street space for people, San Francisco’s Pavement to Parks program has paved the way with a national model showing how cities can embrace community-driven parklet projects. But when it comes to installing plazas, there seems to have been little movement since the first handful were created on “excess” road space […]

Sunday is San Francisco’s Pride Parade on Market Street. This is also the last weekend before the summer closure of the Twin Peaks tunnel, so there are a few transportation items to track, so to speak. Getting Ready for the Twin Peaks Tunnel Closure Monday morning will start the two-month Twin Peaks tunnel closure for track […]

Ghosts cavort where Castro Street should be! Intrepid explorers of San Francisco regularly stumble upon the many ghost streets that still hide all over town, rewarding the patient pedestrian for their diligence. Mostly they are on hillsides where steep grades impeded road building at earlier moments in history, but they’re still presented as if they […]